I’m feeling ornery this morning, so as long as I’m pointing fingers at our incompetent president, I thought I’d level some well-deserved criticism at us voters as well. An article in today’s Seattle P-I reports on a draft letter from the state Transportation Performance Audit Board criticizing the monorail authority, and suggesting that it was the wrong body to be doing transportation planning in the first place.
The letter recommends that the city immediately begin looking at whether monorail is the best technology for serving the West Seattle and Ballard corridors to and through downtown. The city is preparing a Seattle Transit Plan, and the audit board said that is the ideal vehicle for the city to ask how best to serve the two corridors.
After an investigation, the audit board “found no evidence” that non-monorail alternatives were ever considered by the Monorail Board or any other group.
“The review of viable alternatives is an integral part of transportation planning which was bypassed by legislation and at the polls in favor of a (m)onorail technology choice,” the draft letter says. “The lack of alternatives analysis then is being compounded by inadequate reviews now.”
The letter emphasized that the two corridors “suffer from congestion, which deserves relief.” But, the audit board said transportation planning to create “a coherent, integrated transportation system” should be done by the mayor and City Council within the city’s planning framework, not by “an independent, singly tasked authority.”
No shit, Sherlock. But while it’s become fashionable these days to slam the monorail and the board that’s trying to build it, I think it’s time voters started blaming themselves. The monorail wasn’t imposed on the city by some secret cabal of arrogant, out-of-touch politicos… four times the monorail went up for a vote before the citizens of Seattle, and four times it passed. Along with I-695 before it, and I-912 this November, the monorail is yet another example of why transportation planning via public plebiscite is a sure-fire recipe for boondoggles and/or gridlock.
The initiative and referenda process is simply a stupid and fickle way to build a coherent transportation infrastructure in a region as large and complex as the 21st Century Puget Sound. This type of critical planning needs to be done by experts, not by professional loudmouths like Tim Eyman or John Carlson or Kirby Wilbur, and the angry voters who rally to their cry to “send another message.”
Send a message?! To whom?
If you ask me, it’s us voters who are arrogant and out-of-touch.
maybe its time to try Mark Twain’s ‘extended sufferage’ idea… So you can earn extra votes for being educated, et al.
I think everyone’s noticed it. Voters in WA will always vote for new projects and Tax cuts.
They don’t go together.
The people who do not live in King County are OK with the monorail as long as King County pays for it. I doubt very much the folks living in Pullman would care to contribute.
Here’s a “viable alternative”. POUR SOME FUCKING CONCRETE ! ! ! ! Build freeways so we can drive our SUVs.
Redneck Mark –
Where do you live? In a city, or in a rural area? In Seattle? In Metro King County? In King County at all?
Why does anyone who doesn’t live in Seattle feel the need to comment on this project? You aren’t paying one thin dime for it, so shut up, it’s none of your business.
MTR @ 3 if we build you a freeway will you keep your fucking SUV off the streets? I’m trying to ride my bike there.
Your comments are funny, I enjoy reading them, but really Fuck You!
Hey Redneck. Join the marine corps and go kill for oil. That’s what Jesus would do. You’ll come back thinking twice about driving a gas hog. You might wonder why Merikans drive so much. But if you do none of these things, who gives a shit what right wing freaks like you do? Trolls like you are a pissant in the wind.
God hates George W Bush. Bush gets elected and all hell breaks loose. Shut the fuck up, Redneck.
Heath – I live in a nightmare in your tiny little mind…
3
Well, you know, you got a point there Mark the Redneck about concrete. It takes a lot of concrete to support a Hummer.
By the way, did you write your Hummer off your taxes?
Goldy,
Thanks for telling us we need experts (not kvi djs) to take care of transit planning.
Were you critical of non-expert Joel Horn from day 1 as he ran Monorail into the ground?
I think we’ve lost MTR permanently here.
“I live in a nightmare in your tiny little mind… ”
what the hell?
I’m really tending to believe now that its more of the 17-21 year old young-dumbass type here to troll and make himself feel cool. (And lie about himself to make himself feel important)
What serious adult says a line like that?
Speaking of “experts”… go to the monorail website and read the bios of the board members. Notice that there’s not one of them that has ANY experience in engineering? Not one. Here they are trying to manage the largest civil works project in Seattle’s history and not one of them has any experience or education in the field. None…
mtr; pick any public agency around here; skill doesn’t matter
remember Heidi (the babe) Wills was in charge of energy, helped in the city light fiasco
Let me get this straight: the Monorail Board, established to build (let me check here) a monorail, is being criticized because it didn’t consider “non-monorail alternatives”!? Give me a break. They might as well complain that NASA is too focused on space.
No, it’s not. First, the monorail isn’t a boondoggle (not yet, anyway); if they can’t come up with reasonable financing, it’ll be sacked. (The plan itself seems sound; they just underestimated their revenue, so the budget’s busted.) And second, the monorail sure as hell isn’t causing any gridlock.
Whatever. I do believe there have been plenty of experts involved. If you mean that we should have more light rail advocates and other interested parties planning things to benefit their pet projects, I wholeheartedly disagree. If you’re just speculating that it would be nice to have a comprehensive plan, sure . . . but that doesn’t mean we should dump the monorail.
And Goldy, you go too far when you try to equate the Monorail project with I-912; wanting an elevated transit system, and voting to committing our own funds to try to make it happen, is 180 degeres from the self-centered, petulant, “send a message” bullshit of I-912. Their only “message” is that they are anti-tax, anti-transit, anti-roads, and anti-responsibility.
Righton and Mark the Redneck,
I’ll bet you are both in mourning today after Richard Butler’s house (i.e. the Aryian Nations headquarters) was sold in a forclosure auction.
Hang in there, assholes.
Wow, I criticize our unqualified locals, like Heidi and Joel, and for that I’m a Nazi?
Mark the Redneck–
Well…kinda looks like the LEFTIST PINHEADS (aka LENIN’s USEFUL IDIOTS) are now down to getting ALL cars & trucks off the roads and ride bikes everywhere. Great! I wonder how many Lance Armstrong’s it will take to drive one of those double-trailer rigs from the Port to Spokane?????? At least another lawyer will have a legitimate job for once in his useless life. However, I do worry about how much organic fuel he will need to intake on his monthly trip??? We will need to replace all Gas Stations with Organic Food co-ops all along I-90 to service our new “alternative fuel” and “alternative transportation” method.
Now, I previously told you about my buddy who has 8 Prius stickers on the side of his monstrous Escalade. I should also add that this gentleman also has 359 bicycle stickers on his passenger side door. He got himself one of them extended mirrors that rigs hauling trailers and 5th-wheels get…..even though he doesn’t have a trailer our a 5th-wheel. This guy is a compassionate conservative who doesn’t believe in actually running over bikers…..only knocking them down!!!
MTR@8 –
I live in a nightmare in your tiny little mind…
That’s nice. So, do you live anywhere near Seattle, or do you just like to comment on what Seattle should do from afar? It does matter where you live, Mark; the credibility of your comments would be on the line if that were possible.
David@14—
You are wrong sir. The I-912 is not simply anti-tax, anti-transit, anti-road and anti-responsibility.
We are also anti-LEFTIST PINHEAD, anti-LENIN’s USEFUL IDIOTS, anti-Seattle Waterfront beautification in disguise as the AWV boondoggle, and we are certainly anti-ASSHOLE….which means we don’t like you either David you prick!!
Goldy –
This is getting stupid. Any chance of getting different software for the blog? Maybe something moderated?
When it seemed like Cynical had graciously died or dropped off the planet, this was somewhat sufferable. The fact is, their plan of just spouting idiocy really loud is working. You can’t have a conversation here.
heath–
Go back and look at your own vitrolic comments.
heath is mean-spirited….and dumb.
Have you seen the 1700-foot high tsunami yet heath???
heath wants a conversation.
That means only allowing people who agree with heath and speak in a manner heath approves of.
Bad try heath===No Sale
@19,
Heath, what happened to all of those freedoms we are entitled to?
I find the exact opposite. Cynical presents well founded arguments to the ramblings of the leftist pinheads on this board.
Ms. Chickenhawk
So, you admit that you are anti-transit, anti-road and anti-responsibility. I also assume you would admit that you are anti-safety and anti-good policy. And all of this just so you can use your all caps key. Wow, don’t you feel special.
Mark the Yellowback:
Join the marines, then you can drive a Hummer all you want. And you don’t need concrete where they will be sending you, there will be plenty of wide open sand.
You must love having a hummer when it costs $150.00 to fill up ($300.00 in Atlanta). Shame Clinton isn’t president so you could actually afford to drive it if someone poured some concrete.
(Aside, who wants to take a bet that the major oil companies post record profits this quarter?)
rightoff:
It is not just the public sector. How else can you explain Discovery Institute not having any evolutionary biologist on their board. How can you explain idiots listening to someone like the ss minnow who apparently has no expertiese in anything?
I have to admit, I wonder about the whole article. You set up a board to decide wether or not to build the monorail. What purpose is there in them considering other alternatives? That is not what they were set up for. The people either want their monorail, or they don’t.
Would we all be better off with with better central planning in transportation? Sure, but everytime that is tried, idiots like Carlson of Ms. Chickenhawk complain and pass initiatives. So, we are probably stuck with piecemill transit planning. However, I would think that even some of the right might be rethinking their reflexive hatred of transit as Bush drives gas prices up into the stratosphere.
(Second bet of the day, who wants action on wether Bush comes out for drilling off the coast of Florida? I notice that Mr. Drug Addict himself, Rush Limbaugh, thinks we should tear up the enviroment in Alaska, but hasn’t offered to set up a drill off of his palatial mansion. Nor has he offered to fly a commercial airline and save a ton of gas that his private jet uses up flying his fat ass around.., heck, he makes Mike the Yellowback look almost sympathetic.)
JDB@22–
You don’t get it, do you dumbass.
Let me explain it to you s-l-o-w-l-y!!!
W-e a-r-e hoping all the traffic jams will eventually result in all you fringe lunatic LEFTIST PINHEADS (aka LENIN’S USEFUL IDIOTS) going more stark raving mad than you already are (if that is possible). We will have all of you declared mentally INSANE and petition to have your voting rights taken away. It’s a vast right-wing conspiracy JDB…..except a lot of Dems from across the State are in on it too!!!! Got it dude??? It’s not that complicated. It’s a c-o-n-s-p-i-r-a-c-y!!!!
I know at least one voter who’s arrogant and out of touch — Snarkansky (or Sharansky or Sharkansky . . . whatever, doesn’t matter).
Check out his post today about that topic we all know gives Stefan a stiffy — the non-botched, non-fraudulent governor’s election.
Stefan essentially calls Dean Logan a liar for saying that there is no legal requirement that the election be certified by a certain date. Stefan cites RCW 29A.60.200. The immediately preceding section of the statute, RCW 29A.60.190, however, says this:
(1) On the tenth day after a special election or primary and on the fifteenth day after a general election, the county canvassing board shall complete the canvass and certify the results.
Notice it says “shall,” meaning the results must be certified.
Unless someone can point me to decision that interprets this section of the statute contrary to its plain meaning, it seems this is another example of an arrogant, out-of-touch pinhead trying to make a non-issue into an issue for partisan gain. Not to mention further damage to Stefan’s credibility.
By the way, some advice to armchair lawyers and junior barristers: before you spout off about any particular section of a statute, read the whole thing. You will often find other sections that modify or supplement the section you’re reading.
prr@22 –
You mean freedom of speech? Your entitled not to have the government infringe on that. If someone who runs a blog wants to moderate it, it’s their blog, not your blog.
Ms Chickenhawk @ 24
We will let everyone decide who sounds like they are being driven insane. Of course, I still stick to my belief that you are simply a .bat program that Goldy runs so we have some easy humor on this site.
Kitten Sounds @ 22
Best joke you ever told: “Cynical presents well founded arguments….” Yeah, that’s why he is in love with his caps lock key.
Here, let me tell you one:
ss minnow posted something that is true.
See, isn’t nice that we can drop our differences and share in a laugh like this?
Wells: Hey if God really hates GWB, He has the power to have had Al Gore elected in 2000. But that would mean the lefties believe in God!!! See the dichotomy. You guys hate us when we say intelligent design, etc. so I suppose there is some disconnect in lefty thought and God thought!!! He could have changed enough Tennesseean’s minds to have elected him. But as we all know Al couldn’t carry his own state’s bed pan, let alone the electorate!
JDB: Not only are you a dumb LENIN LEFTIST USEFUL IDIOT but you are the ranking stoopid one. If you decide to cough up big bucks to fund the Discovery Institute then you can DEMAND AN EVOLUTIONARY biologist to work there. But since you DON’T fund it STFU.
As a trained engineer, there are well known drilling techniques similar to those used in the Gulf of Mexico that do not affect the environment. But then again you would have to perform some research on your own instead of reading Moveon or DailyKos.
So just for you JDB, I did your research. Read this site as it is written at a 5th grade level, you know one you can comprehend! science.howstuffworks.com/oil-drilling3.htm On page 2 you will view the Sucker Rod, you know the master JDB appendage!
Or JDB, maybe you should look at this site which refers to drilling on low gravity bodies, ie: your head!!! :P ndeaa.jpl.nasa.gov/nasa-nde/usdc/USDC-comparison-w-conventional.htm
Heathen @ 18 -I live in a neighborhood that you will NEVER be able to afford.
Mark the RN@28
Did you know that heath lives in Beverley Hills???
Yup, under a rock in a back alley right in Beverley Hills….West Virginia that is.
Wrongboy @ 27
I have no problems with low impact drilling. However, the problems arise when something goes wrong. The artic wilderness is very slow to rebound, and very hard to clean up. Consider this:
http://news.nationalgeographic.....aldez.html
15 years later: Damage Lingers
…
“On the surface Prince William Sound’s environment has returned to its prespill condition. Wildlife flourishes. Most commercial fisheries are doing well. Even tourism is booming.
But look a little closer and the picture gets a little murkier. In some of the hardest-hit areas, swaths of oil—buried just a few inches below the surface—run across the beaches. Water may circulate to the edges of the oil, but not through it.
“There are isolated pockets where you can still find effects of the oil spill,” Rice said.
Among the animal species that have not recovered are common loons, harbor seals, harlequin ducks, and Pacific herring.
Sea otters, which eat clams buried underground, are particularly affected by the subsurface oil. The clams may be clean, but sea otters may get oil on their fur, which requires energy to cope with.
“It’s like getting the flu three times a year instead of once,” Rice said. “It makes you sicker and less capable of feeding. Sea otters eat 25 percent of their body weight every day. If that’s lowered to 15 percent over, say, ten days, they will probably die.” ”
All for a source of oil that represents probably less than one percent of the US supply for five years, and will probably be sold to the Japanese.
But, since you are in favor of low impact drilling, I’m sure you will be writing Bush to allow drilling off the coast of Florida, where there are much larger reserves. Hell, we can set up a drill on you buddy Rush’s property.
Of course, we could just require higher CAFE standards, and save more oil than ANWR would ever produce, and get enviormental savings to boot…, but why be responsible when there is an enviroment to destory?
JDB; prince wm sound isn’t in the Arctic
Writeoff @ 32:
Nor did I say it was, but it is a sample of a cold sensative enviroment, is it not?
jdb; you should have said that then, you did reference arctic wilderness. Valdez area is neither.
Windie @11:
‘No serious adult would say a line like that….’
Who the hell are you to judge? From your past posts, you strike me as a dim bulb yourself there; don’t go patting yourself on the back there too hard………
Mark@29 –
Don’t be so sure what I can afford.
Anyway, is it a neighborhood in Seattle? Why will you not just answer a simple question?
Is this neighborhood you live in a Seattle neighborhood, Mark?
Heath, I live in a trailer park right next door to you.
Why is it such teeth-pulling with you? Can’t admit you don’t live here, but like to tell us what to do?
I think the Highlands is outside the literal city limits…
I’m glad to see that Goldy has adopted point 4 of my 5 point program to fix the transportation problem. Point 4 is to have competent people in charge instead of eggheads, activists and kooks.
The remaining 4 points:
1) One office to oversee all projects.
2) One financing package that completely pays for everything.
3) Overhauling the laws per EFF analysis
4) Letting The People vote on the whole thing.
Heath – I’m not gonna say where I live. Suffice to say I have a vested interest in this topic. From a neighborhood with a view of mountains, water, and tall buildings. That you will NEVER be able to afford because you are a FUCKING IDIOT.
Mark,
It’s relevant where you live, since in post #3 you suggested we could add pavement to have more roads. Where, exactly, in Seattle would it be possible to add more roads? There aren’t exactly wide open vistas.
And unless you live in Broadmoor, your neighborhood prices aren’t going to keep me out, thanks.
Mark –
It’s not like I’m invading your privacy, here — I only want to know if you live in Seattle, if you have ever been in Seattle, if you ever actually drive in Seattle.
Or, are you talking out your ass, which is what I expect. From what you describe, you could live in Spokane or something.
heath doesn’t know where he lives….it’s either Mars or Seattle.
I can understand his confusion.
These LEFTIST PINHEADS (aka LENIN’S USEFUL IDIOTS) are starting to mentally “melt-down” from the constant gridlock. Their left-eye spins clockwise while their right-eye spins counter-clockwise. They have huge drool coming out of both sides of their tight-lipped mouths. These LEFTIST PINHEADS go to bed at night mumbling the license plate number of the car they followed for 2 hours on the trek home after pretending to work for the government.
heath probably bangs his head on his mailbox a few hundred times before prancing thru the front door into the waiting arms of his life partner and lover…GOLDY!! Goldy will be waiting for you heath in his Wal-Mart spandex top and tighty-whiteys! Don’t worry heath…that bulge is only a pair of wadded up sox.
Let’s remember that the only ones who pay taxes to support the monorail are licensed car owners residing within the Seattle city limits. And this is a tax that was approved by a majority of Seattle voters. You may think it was a good or a bad idea, but Goldy is right that the folks responsible for this Project are US.
As for this audit report, it sounds like a bunch of junk if the best criticism they can lodge is that the agency did not investigate other transit alternatives.
For the record, the ETC which created the plan DID investigate other transit alternatives for comparison. On the other hand, Seattle voters have supported a MONORAIL with four votes, so I think they would be a little annoyed if they received a bus or trolley instead.
More importantly, and unbiased, the City of Seattle did a comprehensive study of intermediate transit alternatives for a number of corridors in the City, which can be found here: http://www.seattle.gov/transpo.....t_home.htm
Heath:
Mark the Yellowback has said before that he lives on the Eastside, although I think he lives in Renton in a dank little apartment and just thinks having a 425 area code puts him on the east side. (props to Almost Live). It would explain his truck facination, and his ability to sound like he is one Schlitz pass a half-rack. That probably means that 37 is the one honest post he has ever posted…, well that and no women would have him.
@ 34:
If you have a better example, please let me know. Otherwise, I stand by my statement.
Mark lives on Hunt’s Point…just over the 520 Bridge.
Now get on to something else PLEASE!
Heath – OK. I drive I5, I405, and I90 every day. I’m one of the producers that carries his fair 88% share of the tax burden to make up for freeloading loser like you.
In terms of space for freeways, it’s easy. Kook Judge Souter on the US Supreme Court ruled a couple of months ago that private property can be taken for the higher good without compensation to the owners. So bring in the bulldozers. Dun. In downtown Seattle, it’s not quite so easy. We’d have to take down the convention center. But wouldn’t it be a helluva party to bring that down? Be better than the Kingdome party.
Also, there are at least 2 levels of stoopid. Some people know what they don’t know, and educate themselves to close the gaps. Others are so fucking stoopid that they don’t know what they don’t know and wander around in a daze. You are the latter.
Well, Monorail goes down. I-912 will win.
Looks like King County better be ready for a shakeup, cause they’ll have to pay for everything on their own. Including people like Goldstain.
Bravo! Give us hell…
As for Carlson & Wilbur, the joke is they get paid to fume their pollution. They are just whores, and their audience is the biggest bunch of clueless johns anywhere.
Worse yet, they are ugly whores!
@17: You and RedneckMark would be beautiful being dragged down a dilapidated freeway at 70 mph, tied by your small intestines to the back of a Hummer…
Has it occurred to the concrete lobby there is nowhere to put new roads?
“If you ask me, it’s us voters who are arrogant and out-of-touch.”
Only the majority of you. I voted against it every time, and I think you ought to acknowledge that there are people who did so. I voted against the freakin’ stadium, too, and look who listened to that mandate.
“…we are certainly anti-ASSHOLE” sez Mr Cynical.
That would certainly explain why your lack of one seems to have filled you with food byproducts.
@52… I thought the Stadium sucked, too, but you’re going to need it when Seattle gets hit with the “big one.” There won’t be anywhere else for the refugees to go…
MtR @ 48,
You said,
Being one of those people who live on one side of lake washington and work on the other, you probably shouldn’t be spending much time talking about the stupidity of others.
Or, does the above combination of every-day-driven roads mean that you actually drive a truck for a living?
I think the rednecks like the gridlock… It gives them more time to follow Kirby, John, and the other liars at KVI…
In half a century of working I have never known co-workers not to use transit when it was feasable, never known co-workers not to ride share when it was possible. The auto gives you the widest possible combination of living/working. If you assume a half mile walk from home to station and a half mile walk from station to work, how many people can ride the monorail? Everything else here is just nannering.
Hey Mr Cynical. The only thing YOU are doing is making an ass of yourself. You’re a tool for the death cult Bush crime dynasty who consider you a useful idiot. You have no credibility and everything you’ve ever written here is meaningless. You’re a loser.
JDB: You know, I sometimes look for great responses and you continue to fail me. You refer me to the Exxon Valdez. The skipper was a drunkard, just like most leftist pinhead moonbats union types, he was drunk on the job!!!
So I am glad you support the new drilling methods. Congratulations.
I live in Snohomish county so I am not commenting on the Monorail, but when a city chokes off an interstate by building a convention center over the road, it demonstrates loocy …oops… loony city thinking.
Trapped again!
Wells@58 –
I couldn’t agree more. Cynical, Mark The Redneck, prr, all of them — useful idiots and tools of the murderers.
#58………Wells writes…….”You’re a tool for the death cult Bush crime dynasty”………..[hehe] Democrats are funny, aren’t they??
wells@58
WTF?? Where did you come from? I know a seagull crapped on a Yugo and wells was hatched.
And heath@60–
Any luck spottin’ that 1700-ft. high tsunami yet dude?
Idiot @61: That tsunami is a figment of your imagination which stems from the biblical myths you learned as a child…
Heath; who are the murderers? Me cuz I’m GOP? My dem neighbor who voted for bush?
Shit righton, a Dem who voted for Bussssssssssh? Say it ain’t so? A lefty who saw through the Kerry BS? One who’s wife gave almost nothing to charity?
58
I think you are on to something. I am going to the polls next time to vote repub with a black hood on with a slit for my eyes. You know the way thoses Jew killers do in Isreal. The only draw back is the donks giving you the thumbs up and throwing flowers at you.
You and RedneckMark would be beautiful being dragged down a dilapidated freeway at 70 mph, tied by your small intestines to the back of a Hummer…Comment by Dan B— 9/1/05 @ 5:45 pm
Very nice dan… EXACTLY the solution of America hating enemies
and thugs
“In a scene reminiscent of Somalia, frenzied crowds dragged the burned, mutilated bodies of four American contractors through the streets of a town west of Baghdad on Wednesday and strung two of them up from a bridge after rebels ambushed their SUVs.”
“In a victory parade the naked bodies of US soldiers were dragged by rope through the streets of Mogadishu amid the cheers of the Islamic thugs.”
I’m sure you’re oh so smug and proud of the company you keep there, pal.
You loudly and proudly claim to be a representative of the progressives, the new American left.
If that is so, you are ALL despicable.
As an American citizen, I am ashamed to acknowledge you hateful fellow citizens as compatriots.
You should be ashamed.
Gee, I thought this thread was about transportation issues.
Gee, I thought this thread was about transportation issues. -Comment by K— 9/1/05 @ 9:09 pm
Gee, it was until the hateful progressive suggested dragging fellow citizens “down a dilapidated freeway at 70 mph” tied by “their small intestines” as his solution/rebuttal to their disagreeing ways.
Say ‘hello’, to the compassionate, new left.
And so many gleefully jumped down into the mud with him.
THe “he did it first defense”. A real winner.
Look in the mirror and blame yourselves, if you have the guts ! You keep electing dufusses like Ron Sims, Greg Nickels, Dwight Pelz, Julia Patterson and Carolyn Edmonds who are good at throwing money at projects by pathetic on coming up with a coherent plan. Are those the experts Goldy was speaking of ?
Tim Eyman is the basis of this website’s name and he has his screwups on I-695, but afraid that he is a necessary evil because of these leftist politicos who are out to make as many people dependent on government, so they can have more power and alot of the chumps on the left keep electing them, because Republicans are evil – yeah right (yes, some of them are pathetic). Term limits is the best answer to this area that suffers badly from paralysis by analysis…
And so many gleefully jumped down into the mud with him.
THe “he did it first defense”. A real winner.
Comment by K— 9/1/05 @ 9:40 pm
Oh bullshit.
Pointing out his hatefulness, his terrorist-style revenge hopes and wishes for those with whom he disagrees is not jumping into anything.
Get past your kindergarten moral relativism.
Goldy, both the Transportation Performance Audit Board and you miss the point — the monorail is guerrilla transportation.
Which is to say, Seattle voters took things into their own hands. They bypassed the planners, committees, and established institutions. They said, the hell with those people, we’re going to build a MONORAIL! They didn’t ask for federal money, or state money, they did it with their own money — precisely so they could do it their way, and the bureaucrats would butt out.
To undertand the monorail, you must understand it as a grassroots revolt against establishment transportation planning. To makethe people who voted for it happy, it doesn’t have to follow the best route or dovetail with light rail or anything else — it only has to be theirs.
Back off, Goldy. Let ’em play with their toy.
The audit board is right on and so is Goldy. Why in hell are we planning to build two new rail lines through downtown Seattle that basically duplicate each other and will NEVER connect – one on second avenue and one on third avenue? How stupid is that when we have many other more pressing transportation priorities?
The light rail line is under construction now – the tunnel we’ve already paid for downtown will house it, along with all the existing stations – and it will be seperated from traffic on the street. Why build more rail above ground – and all the stations – a block away on the same route? Far better to extend light rail (which will always connect to itself) to the rest of the city and other parts of the region – at far less cost and far more value.
It will cost us all less in part because federal taxes we already pay can be used to help – unlike the monorail. And you won’t have to transfer downtown to get to the airport. Next phases of light rail are already planned for Ballard. Why duplicate?
Mark the Yellowback:
You do love showing your ignorance, don’t you:
“Kook Judge Souter on the US Supreme Court ruled a couple of months ago that private property can be taken for the higher good without compensation to the owners.”
I would say amazingly enough you got that entirely wrong, but, then, it’s you, so it isn’t that amazing.
What the court ruled was that with just compensation, a government could take land and give it to another private entitity if it would produce a greater good. Look at the building of the railways on and you can see how this has worked.
You should also be aware that under the Washington Constitution this would not work. So, see, your single-wide is safe.
Pudbud:
Oh, so you are saying that if we drill in ANWR, there will be no human errors? Humans never make mistakes, do they. You must not be much of an engineer if you don’t account for the human factor.
Please make the Monorail nonsense stop.
Please.
How much more proof do you need that this is plan is goofy and we need transportation concepts that also provide for emergency vehicle access in case of disaster. Electrified trains are the most vulnerable mode of public transport and they offer no flexibility in the use of rights-of-way.
I know of NO project that runs public transport on rails that is anything like cost-effective. Even in rail-mad England and India, rail is not proving its value and lines are being abandoned. Elevated monorail is even worse than regular rail. It is unreasonably expensive per mile, totally inflexible for any other use and, as I say, very vulnerable to disaster.
Rail is an old technology. Public transport needs new thinking.
D
Elevated Link Light Rail would be cheaper than Monorail.
It does not make any sense to build two incompatible rail systems, mono and light rail. Light Rail is more flexible. It can run at ground level, elevated or underground. LR can share the tunnel with buses.
Different LR lines could directly interconnect in downtown Seattle.